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WOODROW WILSON 

AN APPRECIATION 



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ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE 

THE LITERARY SOCIETIES 

OF ANTIOCH STATE 

HIGH SCHOOL 



By ANGUS WILTON McLEAN 

LUMBERTON, N. C. 
1914 



WOODROW WILSON 

AN APPRECIATION 



ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE 

THE LITERARY SOCIETIES 

OF ANTIOCH STATE 

HIGH SCHOOL 



By ANGUS WILTON McLEAN 

LUMBERTON, N. C. 

1914 



• Mis- 



THE 
OBSERVER PRINTING HOUSE. INC. 

CHARLOTTE, N. C. 



WOODROW WILSON 

AN APPRECIATION 



Mr. Chairman, Members of the Literary Societies, Ladies and 
Gentlemen: 

When the subjects appropriate to this occasion passed in 
mental review before me, there stood out pre-eminently, in 
my mind's eye, the great character now occupying the central 
place in the arena of American public life; so that I now come 
to deliver a short message concerning him who, in my opinion, 
typifies more perfectly than any other man, all that is good and 
great in our national life. The story of his life, his character 
and achievements, should appeal with peculiar force to this 
auditory, composed as it is of so many who are bound to him 
by the ties of a common race, common ancestry, and (I may 
add) a common creed. 

W'oodrow ^^'ilson is descended from a Scotch-Irish ances- 
try noted for its culture and its intensity of religious convic- 
tion. Some of his Scottish forebears, before they emigrated 
from the hills of Scotland to the north of Ireland, died as 
martyrs in defense of their religious faith. He is descended 
also from a long line of preachers and editors — those who con- 
stantly stand upon the watch-tower, and whose lives are largely 
consecrated to the common good. William Duane, an early 
democrat and friend of Jefferson, contributed in no small 
degree to the educational and religious training of James 
Wilson, the grandfather of Woodrow Wilson. Duane emi- 
grated from county Down, Ireland, lured to the shores of the 
New \\''orld at the early age of twenty-two, seeking fame and 
fortune. 

3 



This James Wilson landed at Philadelphia, in 1808, and 
immediately secured employment in the workrooms of the 
Daily Aurora, then edited and owned by William Duane, and 
which was at that time an aggressive force in molding public 
opinion in those early days of the Republic. Not long after 
his arrival, he married Ann Adams, a true Irish lass, who 
came over in the same ship with him ; and soon after their 
marriage the newly wedded pair cast their fortunes with those 
who were turning their faces to the then undeveloped West. 
In 18 12, James Wilson founded the Western Herald, at 
Steubenville, Ohio, and afterwards the Pennsylvania Advocate, 
at Pittsburg, Pa. ; and for many years divided his time and 
efforts between these two enterprises, making a success of 
each. 

There was born to James Wilson and his wife seven sons 
and three daughters ; and their youngest child, Joseph Ruggles 
Wilson, the father of Woodrow Wilson, soon developed 
strong aspirations along literary lines. Trained by pious 
parents, and especially by his mother, who was a Presbyterian 
of the "most straightest sect," he determined in early life to 
adopt the Gospel ministry as his life work. He attended 
Steubenville Academy, and then Jefferson College (after- 
wards known as Washington and Jefferson College), where 
he was valedictorian of his Class, thereafter obtaining his the- 
ological training at Western Theological Seminary, at 
Allegheny, Pa., and Princeton Seminary. 

The Rev. Dr. Thomas Woodrow, of English descent, but 
bom in Scotland, had come from Carlisle, England, as a mis- 
sionary to the New World, where he settled at Chillicothe, 
Ohio. While Joseph R. Wilson was teaching at Steubenville, 
he met the attractive daughter of Dr. Woodrow — Janet by 
name — sometimes called Jessie, where she was attending 
school. This meeting soon ripened into friendship, and later 
they were married, on June 7, 1849. After his marriage. 
Rev. Joseph Ruggles Wilson taught at Jefferson College, then 

4 



at Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, finally accepting a call 
to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church at Staunton, Va., 
to which place he removed in 1855, accompanied by his wife 
and two small daughters — Marian and Annie Josephine. It 
was while the family were living at Staunton that Woodrow 
(christened Thomas Woodrow) Wilson was born, on the 
twenty-eighth day of December, 1856. When young Wood- 
row was two years old, the family removed to Augusta, Ga., 
where his father accepted the pastorate of the important First 
Presbyterian Church of that city. Both at Augusta, Ga., and 
Columbia, S. C. (where Dr. Wilson, in 1870, accepted the 
chair of Pastoral and Evangelistic Theology at the Southern 
Presbyterian Theological Seminary), while young Woodrow 
attended private schools, his father was then as ever his chief 
instructor and intimate companion. Dr. Joseph R. Wilson 
was one of the most brilliant leaders of the Southern Presby- 
terian Church. For forty years he was Stated Clerk of the 
Southern General Assembly, becoming its Moderator in 1879. 
Dr. Wilson, though he attended closely to his duties as pastor 
and college professor, always kept himself well informed upon 
the events of the day, and his keen mentality enabled him to 
judge men and affairs, to analyze political situations, to detect 
a sham and shame a pretender. Young Woodrow, by constant 
association with his father, naturally and unconsciously 
absorbed much of his father's ability along these lines. 

Woodrow Wilson's mother was a most exemplary woman, 
possessing many excellent qualities both of head and heart. 
Her son, therefore, in early life, was deeply imbued with the 
straightforward resoluteness of purpose, and Spartan qualities 
of character, for which she was distinguished. To the lessons 
she inculcated in the youthful mind of her son, may, in great 
measure, be attributed those sterling qualities which have ever 
characterized his conduct, both in public and private life. 
Among the long line of noble mothers whose characters have 
left their everlasting impress upon the history of the world, 

5 



and whose sons have reaped the rich harvest of world renown 
fruited from seed sown by their mother's hand, no one merits 
higher praise or greater commendation than the mother of 
Woodrow Wilson. 

These Christian parents — the father, a great preacher and 
teacher of preachers ; the mother, a devout follower of Christ 
and loyal helpmeet in her husband's pastoral and professional 
duties — in their constant watch-care and solicitude, presented 
to their young son the most powerful incentive to those exer- 
tions which have resulted in placing him in the commanding 
position he now occupies. 

These consecrated parents, in even his immature youth, 
began to lay the everlasting foundation of his future great- 
ness by teaching him the study of the Holy Scriptures — that 
Book which, in the language of the greatest philosopher and 
jurist who ever lived, contains 

/ "more true sublimity, more explicit beauty, more pure 
morality, more important history, and finer strains of both 

4 , poetry and eloquence, than can be collected from all other 
^^ books, in whatever age or language they may have been 
./ composed." / 

Woodrow Wilson has often expressed to his intimate 
friends, that he owed his whole success in life to those pious 
parents, who sacrificed for him, who urged and encouraged 
him to seek his education, and who instilled into his youthful 
heart the love of God and his fellow-man, so profoundly 
taught in the Book of Books. Those who knew the son during 
the life of his parents, speak eloquently of his filial affection 
for them. He was always a noble type of the dutiful son. 

Who doubts that the success which has crowned the life of 
this loyal and devoted son is, in part at least, a reward of 
Providence for the faithful performance of this high and holy 
duty? Are we not taught in the revealed word that Jehovah 
regards with favorable eye the efforts of filial duty? Is not 

6 



the first promise in the decalog to him that honoreth his father 
and mother? Who is there among us that does not thrill at the 
story of the filial love of the dutiful ^neas as he appears 
amidst the flames that were consuming ancient Troy, and 
while the eager multitude were intent only in rescuing their 
paltry treasures, abandoned all his earthly possessions, and 
was seen bearing on his youthful shoulders the venerable 
Anchises, his aged father, to a place of safety? 

In the days following the Civil W^ar, the chilling ills of 
poverty prevented many parents of our Southland from sus- 
taining, even with an economical hand, the needs of their sons 
attending college, and the parents of young Wilson were no 
exception to the general condition existing at that time. They 
made many sacrifices for the son while he was attending 
college in quest of that knowledge which has enabled him to 

"Climb 

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar." 

About 1874, Dr. Wilson accepted the pastorate of the First 
Presbyterian Church at Wilmington, N. C, and moved to that 
place, having entered his son Woodrow at Davidson College, 
North Carolina, then as now one of the strongest institutions 
of learning in the South. In the fall of 1875, Woodrow en- 
tered Princeton University, then under the presidency of the 
distinguished Dr. James McCosh. About three months after 
he entered Princeton, an event occurred which, in his own 
opinion, was the turning point in his hfe. While strolling 
through the library, he one day took down a file of the Gen- 
tleman's Magazine, and turned to a series of articles entitled 
"Men and Manners in Parliament," written by the "Member 
for Chiltern Hundreds," the anonymous successor of the 
famous Dr. Samuel Johnson. 

The mind of Woodrow Wilson was literally captivated by 
these vivid descriptions of the Parliamentary debates par- 

7 



ticipated in by such forensic giants as Gladstone, Disraeli, John 
Bright, Earl Granville, Sir William Harcourt, and other great 
figures in English public life. In his Senior year, Mr. Wilson 
wrote an article entitled "Cabinet Government in the United 
States," which was promptly accepted by the International 
Review, and published in 1879. He criticised the practice of 
controlling Congressional legislation by committee. He pro- 
posed, as a remedy for the evils of committee government, a 
plan which admitted Cabinet members to seats upon the floors 
of Congress, with the right to participate in debate. It may 
be remarked in passing that it was to put this idea into prac- 
tice as far as he could, that recently, as the head of the gov- 
ernment, he smashed precedent, and appeared in person to 
deliver his message before the Congress. 

After his graduation from Princeton, and having reached 
the conclusion that the study of the science of the law was a 
necessary part in the education of any man who desired to 
participate in public affairs, he took a full course in law at 
the University of Virginia, where he continued his studies of 
English Government, and contributed several articles to the 
University Magasine on Gladstone, John Bright, and other 
noted English statesmen. 

Leaving the University of Virginia, he spent a year in Wil- 
mington, N. C, with his parents, for the purpose principally 
of resting, and recuperating his health, which was then some- 
what impaired by over-study and close confinement. At the 
end of this period, he went to Atlanta, Ga., and opened an 
office for the practice of the law. After waiting rather im- 
patiently for eighteen months, and clients being slow in de- 
manding his services, he concluded that the waiting and un- 
certain career of a young lawyer was rather discouraging, and 
therefore concluded to renew his studies in the science of gov- 
ernment, at Johns Hopkins University, at Baltimore, Md., 
where, in his second year, he held a Fellowship in History. 
At this time, he was the author of a volume entitled "Con- 

8 



gressional Government : a Study of Government by Com- 
mittee," which met with immediate success, and is quoted 
with unqualified approval by the Hon. James Bryce, in his 
authoritative work, "The American Commonwealth." Mr. 
Wilson's ability, as evidenced by these publications, soon at- 
tracted the attention of the leading colleges of the country, 
and he was offered, and accepted, the position of Associate 
Professor in History and Political Economy at Bryn Mawr 
College. 

In 1886, Johns Hopkins University conferred upon him the 
degree of Ph. D., and afterwards engaged him for a series of 
lectures. He next became Professor of History and Political 
Economy at Wesleyan University, during which time he wrote 
another work, entitled "The State." In 1890, he accepted an 
offer of the chair of Jurisprudence and Politics in Princeton 
University, thereby becoming a member of the faculty of his 
alma mater. He soon became one of the most popular pro- 
fessors, for Princeton had never had, in all of its long and 
brilliant history, a teacher who so captivated his classes. He 
taught with absorbing interest the theories of government, 
and in his lectures fascinated his pupils by impressively apply- 
ing his views to current events. 

Twelve years passed by, during which Woodrow Wilson con- 
tinued to develop, and his mind, broadened by knowledge and 
enriched by contemplative reflection, mellowed and ripened 
into its perfect maturity. He continued to write, during this 
period producing "Division and Reunion," "An Old Master," 
"Mere Literature," "George Washington"; and there finally 
appeared his masterful production, the "History of the 
American People." He had now become an authority and a 
world figure in the field of scholarship and authorship, his 
books being used as text-books in many of our colleges and 
higher institutions of learning, and being translated into 
foreign tongues. 

9 



In June, 1902, Woodrow Wilson was elected president of 
Princeton University. His thorough equipment, his capacity 
for prudent leadership, his splendid scholarship, his eloquence 
and popularity as a speaker, his already widespread fame as a 
writer, his judgment of men and events, and his remarkable 
executive ability and business sagacity, marked him as a 
national figure. He had the distinction of being the first lay- 
man in a long list of preacher-presidents of this famous Uni- 
versity, covering a period of one hundred and sixty years. 

By his election to the presidency of the University, a man, 
who was by natural bent and lifelong training an exponent of 
genuine democracy, was placed in control of probably at that 
time the most aristocratic educational institution in the United 
States. 

He soon attempted a reorganization of the social life of the 
campus. He determined to devise a plan by which the ex- 
clusive clubs, patronized by the wealthier classmen, and main- 
tained upon a luxurious scale, should be superseded by a num- 
ber of "quadrangles" — dormitories in which a certain number 
of men from each class, without respect to their financial 
standing, together with several instructors, should have their 
residence. He contended that this would assure a co-mingling 
of all the students, the upper classmen demonstrating the value 
of the college training they had already received, and the 
lower classmen, through personal contact with them, receiving 
an impetus for their further college career. Under the con- 
ditions which were then prevailing, Princeton had a dozen 
swell clubhouses, to which only students possessed of large 
means could afiford to belong, and to which none others could 
secure admittance. Thus a minority of exclusive riches domi- 
nated the life of the University, setting up an aristocracy of 
money instead of brains, with the natural result of heart- 
burnings, jealousies, bickerings, and factional strife among 
the student-body. The exclusive club spirit was also the 
dominant character-forming influence. 

10 



The democratic heart of Woodrow Wilson throbbed in a 
burning desire to overthrow this pernicious system, so ahen 
to his ideas of representative American Hfe. The trustees 
(save those who, when students, belonged to these same clubs) 
endorsed the president's recommendation, but such howls of 
protest went up from those who belonged to these clubs that 
the trustees became frightened, and requested President 
Wilson to withdraw the proposition. Of course he was com- 
pelled to do so, as the trustees were supreme in the control 
of the government of the University. Mr. Wilson acquiesced 
in the turn of events against him, but he felt at heart that his 
opportunity for valuable service, under the conditions prevail- 
ing, was much lessened and impaired. He determined, there- 
fore, at the first opportunity, to sever his connection as head 
of the University. This opportunity soon came, with the 
Democratic nomination for the Governorship of New Jersey, 
which he accepted gladly, for it opened up new avenues for 
the great public service for which his whole life had been an 
unconscious preparation. 

Woodrow Wilson's splendid campaign as a candidate for 
Governor of New Jersey caught the eye of the whole country. 
He convinced the people everywhere of his sincerity of pur- 
pose, the integrity of his political character, and of his free- 
dom from the control of political bosses. He was elected 
Governor by a plurality of 49,150, whereas Taft had carried 
the National ticket in that State two years before, by a plural- 
ity of 82,000. 

Upon his inauguration as Governor, he found the legislature 
composed of twelve Republicans and nine Democrats in the 
Senate, and eighteen Republicans and forty-two Democrats in 
the House of Representatives. The platform on which he was 
elected Governor promised certain vital reforms. Bitter op- 
position developed in the legislature, not only on the part of 
the Republicans, but among members of his own party. It 

II 



was generally predicted that the Governor would be helpless 
in his attempt to carry out the reforms promised in his plat- 
form, but he reasoned, argued, and persuaded, Democrats and 
Republicans alike, winning over some by his logical reasoning 
and others by his magnetic personality. He never made 
threats, but often smilingly suggested that public opinion was 
back of him. In a legislative session of three months, in spite 
of the fact that the upper house of the legislature was of the 
opposite political faith, and that there were recalcitrants in 
his own party. Governor Wilson fulfilled every demand of the 
people, in securing the enactment of the important measures 
pledged in his platform. He demonstrated then, as well as in 
every other contest in which he has been engaged, that he is 
a born leader of men. 

Governor Wilson's extraordinary success as leader of his 
party in New Jersey, as well as the national reputation that 
he had already acquired, which his career as Governor greatly 
augmented, gave him a strong lead in the contest for the 
Democratic nomination for the Presidency, and when the 
Democratic Convention met at Baltimore, on June 25, 1912, 
he was in a strong position among the candidates. On the 
first ballot he received 324 votes, and on the forty-sixth he 
was nominated, having received 990 votes. The convention 
which nominated him was the greatest convention ever held 
by any political party, and those of us who were present, and 
participated in the stirring scenes which characterized that 
assemblage, carried home impressions which will never be 
forgotten. 

After his nomination, he entered upon the campaign with 
great zeal and earnestness, delivering a number of speeches in 
many States. The triangular character of the contest, and the 
bitterness between the leaders and in the ranks of the Repub- 
lican and Progressive parties, made it the most interesting 
political campaign in American history since the campaign in 

12 



which Lincoln took so prominent a part. Wilson received 
6,293,454; Roosevelt, 4,119,538; and Taft, 3,484,980 votes. 
Wilson, however, carried a large majority of the States, and 
received an overwhelming majority in the Electoral College, 
the vote there being Wilson, 435; Roosevelt, 81; Taft, 15. 

In his inaugural address, he captivated the country. He 
showed his sincere belief that his campaign pledges were the 
sacred covenants between him and the people. He concluded 
a masterly address, which will go down into history as one of 
the greatest state papers ever written, with the following 
appeal : 

":|^ "This is not a day of triumph ; it is a day of dedica- 
■ tion. Here muster, not the forces of party, but the forces 
of humanity. Men's hearts wait upon us ; men's lives hang 
in the balance ; men's hopes call upon us to say what we 
will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dares 
fail to try? I summons all honest men, all patriotic, 
all forward-looking men, to my side. God help- 
ing me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and 
sustain me." 

When he called together the Congress in special session, 
members of his own party feared, and the opposition freely 
predicted, that on account of the small Democratic majority in 
the Senate, and also because of the dissension among some 
members of his own party, the President would never obtain 
a satisfactory revision of the tariff at the hands of Congress. 
The advocates of protection were highly elated at this pros- 
pect of failure. They referred derisively to the spectacle 
created in their imaginations and vividly depicted in current 
cartoons of the angry school teacher, unable to control and 
discipline his disobedient and obstreperous pupils. The 
opposition claimed, as it had claimed in the contest for the 
nomination at Baltimore, that Woodrow Wilson was only a 
scholarly professor, spoiled by his long experience in the dog- 
matic atmosphere of the lecture-room, and that he was a mere 

13 



theorist, unacquainted with the practical side of pohtics or 
statecraft. 

When the tariff bill was being considered, there were 
frequent and alarming reports of dissension, treachery, and 
insurgency among members of the president's own party. The 
false prophets began to exclaim with one harmonious voice, 
"I told you so. The Democratic party is not susceptible of 
constructive leadership." These critics further contended that 
the Democratic majority in the House was too large and un- 
wieldy, while the majority in the Senate was too much of the 
hairbreadth variety to insure safety. Mr. Wilson started out 
to redeem the sacred pledges of his party, by putting through 
Congress a low tariff measure, framed and founded upon the 
Democratic idea of government — that greatest of all principles 
of free government — "Equality of opportunities and equality 
of burdens," for which free men have fought from the earliest 
periods in the history of all government. It was the demand 
for this same great principle which shook the foundation of 
old-world governments prior to, and at the time of, the French 
Revolution. 

Woodrow Wilson, ably aided by his first lieutenants, Sena- 
tor Simmons and Representative Underwood, performed a 
task that at one time seemed well-nigh impossible of per- 
formance, and within the briefest period in which a great tariff 
bill was ever enacted the Congress placed upon the statute 
books the only tariff act ever passed by any political party in 
the interest of the whole people. 

This so-called "impracticable theorist," in the opinion now 
of even his political enemies, had demonstrated beyond any 
question his capacity in the art of practical politics. When 
controversies arose during the heated debates, he sent for the 
warring combatants, so diplomatically smoothing out their 
differences that he converted them into active co-laborers in 
the common cause. When insurgency threatened, he argued, 

14 



persuaded, and even implored the insurgents to desist, and 
when these "tufts of grass" failed, he "cast stones," and 
smilingly overrode the insurgent opposition, but afterwards 
expressed to the most active among them, in almost tearful 
tones, his profound regret at his inability to agree with them. 

There were occasional outbursts of resentment in both 
Senate and House, but in every instance the superb leadership 
of the President, displayed in his many conferences, overcame 
all obstacles, and finally this great leader, surrounded by his 
faithful lieutenants, affixed his signature to the Underwood- 
Simmons tariff bill, and stood forth in his true character as a 
practical and constructive statesman. But — did he, on this 
occasion of his great victory, exalt himself, after the manner 
of that numerous horde of modern politicians, some of whom 
have, even lately, held the high office of President ? Did he 
show any evidence of being afflicted with the "exaggerated 
ego," as so many would have done under the same circum- 
stances ? He did not, but on the contrary gave most, if not all, 
the praise to those who assisted him, as the following words 
spoken by him when he signed the bill bear eloquent witness : 

"It is with a feeling of profound gratitude that, working 
with the splendid men who have carried this thing through 
with studious attention, and doing justice all around, I 
shall have had part in serving the people of this country. 

"I was quoting to some of my colleagues in the Senate 
those lines from Shakespeare, which have always appealed i>^ 

to me — 'If it be a sin to covet honor, then am I the most 
offending soul alive' — and I am happy to say that I do not 
covet it for myself alone. I covet it with equal ardor for 
the men who are associated with me ; and the honor is 
going to come from them. I am their associate. I can 
only complete the work which they do. I can only counsel 
when they ask for my counsel. I can come in only when 
the last stages of the business are reached. And I covet 
the honor for them quite as much as I do covet it for 
myself, and I covet it for the great party of which I am a 

15 



member ; because that party is not honorable unless it re- 
deem its name and serve the people of the United States. 

"So I feel tonight like a man who is lodging happily in 
the inn which lies half way along the journey, and that in 
the morning, with a fresh impulse, we shall go the rest of 
the journey, and sleep at the journey's end like a man with 
a quiet conscience, knowing that we have served our 
fellow-men and have thereby tried to serve God." 

This spirit of unselfish poHtical courtesy has few parallels 
in the history of American politics, and reminds one 
forcibly of the unselfish Christian courtesy displayed by Paul 
in recognizing the services of his co-workers, so vividly ex- 
pressed in his Epistle to the Romans. 

That great newspaper the Neiv York World, in a forceful 
editorial in its issue of October 4, 1913, refering to the signing 
of the tariff bill by the President, among other things, said : 

"It was no mere personal victory that had been won 
when President Wilson signed the Underwood-Simmons 
tariff bill last night, and made it the law of the land. It 
was no mere partisan victory. It was a victory for Ameri- 
can institutions, and it should inspire the American people 
with new confidence in their system of government. 

"Whether tariffs should be high or low or moderate are 
matters about which honest men can differ. Whether a 
government should raise revenue by a tax on incomes is a 
matter about which honest men can disagree. But 
whether the political leaders of a democracy should keep 
their pledges, whether a party that is intrusted with the 
powers of government should keep the faith — these are 
matters about which there can be no disagreement among 
honest men. 

"Unless men elected to office redeem their pledges, 
unless a party that triumphs at the polls keeps the faith, 
republican institutions are a fraud and a lie. There can 
be no representative government, except in name, when the 
people are tricked and hoodwinked or defrauded. 

"Whatever anybody may think about downward revi- 
sion of the tariff, no man can deny that the Underwood- 
Simmons act embodies the promises that the Democratic 

16 



Party made to the country in the campaign of 1912. This 
is no tariff by log-rolling, by manipulation, by intrigue, 
by lobbying, by bribery. It was bought by no campaign 
contributions. It was dictated by no conspiracy between 
corrupt business and corrupt politics. It is a tariff made 
in the open, by men who took the country into their con- 
fidence and did their work in the sight of everybody. It 
is a tariff that is exactly what it pretends to be; and it is 
a tariff that was promised at the polls." 

The Wilson administration, in the first days of its existence, 
was called upon to consider grave diplomatic questions, in- 
herited as a legacy from the former administration, which at 
once enlisted the most serious attention of the new President. 
When the far-reaching question concerning our national rela- 
tions with Mexico arose, great pressure was brought to bear 
upon the President to resort to extreme measures in dealing 
with the helpless, and in many respects, pitiful condition of 
our neighboring Republic. His great mind at once grasped 
the true situation. He knew that to accede to the demands 
made upon him by those who had selfish interests to serve 
meant a long, expensive, foreign war, in which thousands of 
valuable American lives would be sacrificed, and a billion 
dollars or more of money expended, with no resultant gain 
in our national well-being. With firmness and dignity, un- 
moved by the jingoistic clamor, the President made clear his 
determination to make friendliness and justice, as exemplified 
in the principles of the great brotherhood of mankind, the 
duty and the mission of this Republic. As an evidence of his 
frankness and sincerity, he appeared before the Congress, and 
delivered to its members and the people of the United States, 
in simple and impressive words, the attitude of this govern- 
ment towards the Mexican people. 

Thus, for the first time since Washington's day, a Presi- 
dent of the United States appeared before Congress to discuss 
delicate foreign aflfairs. I had the good fortune to be present 
on this occasion, and saw and heard the delivery of this won- 

17 



derful address. The scene was an inspiring one. Assembled 
in the hall of the House of Representatives were the members 
of the Congress, the members of the Cabinet, the Diplomatic 
Corps, Justices of the august Supreme Court of the United 
States, distinguished army and navy officers, both American 
and foreign, members of the press, and private citizens of 
almost every country in the world. Applause greeted the 
President's almost every utterance. A remarkable feature was 
the heartiness of the applause given by leaders of the opposite 
parties, who, for the time being, forgot the selfishness of 
partisan politics, and gave way to patriotic sentiments in- 
spired by the efforts of the President to act for the best in- 
terests of the whole country. 

There are some, however, who disagree with the president 
in his peaceful attitude towards Mexico, who denounce his 
policy of "watchful waiting," and who demand that we should 
intervene even if war is thereby precipitated. In all serious- 
ness, I believe that it is the duty of every patriotic American 
citizen to uphold the President in his earnest endeavor to avoid 
war with Mexico, Japan, or any other foreign nation. Our 
Southland has had enough of war. We should earnestly 
desire and strive for peace and peaceful commerce. We 
should never forget that war and commerce are the two great 
antagonistic principles which struggle for the mastery of the 
human race — the function of one being to preserve, and that 
of the other to destroy. Peaceful commerce causes cities to 
be built, fields to be cultivated; diffuses comfort and plenty 
and all the blessings which usually accompany industry and 
peace. It protects property and life ; it disarms pestilence, and 
prohibits famine. 

War, on the other hand, destroys. It disorganizes society, 
ruins cities, depopulates fields, makes defenseless widows and 
helpless orphans, brings grief, misery, and want upon those 
who are least able to withstand them. It condemns men to 
idleness, teaches them to kill and maim their fellows ; and the 

l8 



only remedy it offers for the cessation of the horrors it brings 
upon men is to shorten the misery of its victims by giving dis- 
ease, pestilence, famine, and the merciless sword, ample com- 
mission to destroy their lives. It thus appears that war is the 
great enemy, while peaceful commerce is the great friend, of 
humanity. 

The admiration of the American people for the manner in 
which President Wilson has handled the difficult Mexican sit- 
uation was expressed so uniquely by William Allen White, in 
an editorial in the Emporia Gazette, that I cannot do better 
than reproduce it here: 

"How well he seems to have managed it — this whole 
sordid business of going to war ; how fair he has been ; 
how patient, how dignified, how infinitely gentle and kind! 
No bluster, no threats, no stickler of anticipation ; no lick- 
ing of the nation's chops — just a simple-souled, grave, 
soft-hearted, hard-headed man. It is sad enough to go 
into war of any kind, at any time ; but it is less sad to go 
knowing that every honorable means has been taken to 
keep away from war. And this consolation President 
Wilson has given us by his wise, forebear ing. Christian 
attitude before the provocation of a foe, mad and des- 
perate and foolish. 

"The good God. who knows all and watches over all, 
and sees all, and directs all, was in our hearts deeper than 
we knew, when as a nation we chose this great, serene 
soul to lead us." 

While Mr. Wilson is ready to resort to all reasonable means 
to avoid war, let no-one be deceived in thinking that he lacks 
courage. x\ll his past record shows that he is brave and cour- 
ageous. He is not afraid of a fight; and if the time ever 
comes, in our relations with Mexico or any other nation, when 
the material rights of this government or its citizens are 
jeopardized, and peaceful means to obtain redress have failed, 
he will resort to the stern measures of war with the same grim 
determination which characterized the conduct of Lee and 
Lincoln. 

19 



Another great measure which has enlisted the earnest efforts 
of the President is the reform of our currency and banking 
system. Members of Congress, worn out by their summer- 
long labors on the tariff bill, were reluctant to enter upon the 
work necessary to pass a currency bill at that session of Con- 
gress. The President, however, appeared again before that 
body, and read a message on the currency question, saying 
among other things : 

"The work to be done is pressing, and so fraught with 
great consequences that we know that we are not at lib- 
erty to weigh against it any point of personal sacrifice." 

He realizes, as every intelligent man must realize, that the 
reformation of our currency and banking system, including a 
proper scheme of agricultural credits, and land banks, is the 
greatest single question that has agitated the public mind in 
America for a generation. The farmers of the country have 
been discriminated against by the system of bond-secured 
national bank currency, in a manner that would have destroyed 
our agricultural interests except for the fact that our natural 
resources in agricultural wealth are constantly renewing and 
reproducing themselves. There will, no doubt, be a sharp and 
severe struggle between the opposing forces in Congress on 
this great measure of currency reform, but those of us who 
have learned to follow, implicitly and with unwavering con- 
fidence, the leadership of our President, hope and believe that 
he will not relax his efforts until this great public need shall 
have been accomplished.* 

The world has, in all ages, produced some great leader, who 
towered above his fellows in the forum of human endeavor. 
Alexander the Great, king of Macedon. matchless leader of 
the ancient Greeks, won fame, not only by his triumphant suc- 



*NOTE :— Since this address was delivered. Congress has enacted, under the leader- 
ship of the President, the great Federal Reserve System of banking and 
currency, which has already proven to be one of the most important pieces 
of constructive legislation ever enacted by Congress. 

20 



cess in building up so vast an empire ; but his military career 
also excited among mankind the greatest admiration. Han- 
nibal, the great military hero of the Carthaginians, won his 
fame by the intensity and implacableness of his hatred of his 
enemies ; and his claim to fame is largely that he kept a vast 
empire in a state of terror for fifty years by the power of his 
victorious sword. All these great leaders in the world's his- 
tory possessed many marks of genius, but, unfortunately, all 
of them show defects in their personal or moral character, 
which forever obscured and marred their greatness in other 
respects. In the character of Woodrow Wilson, we fortu- 
nately find most of the admirable qualities of leadership and 
statesmanship which characterized the famous men of his- 
tory, but differing from them in that his private and moral 
character and religious convictions have always been above 
reproach. 

Under Woodrow Wilson's leadership, the Democratic party 
has achieved a capacity for constructive work which it has not 
shown for at least a generation. He took a party confused by 
contentions between the so-called radical and conservative 
elements, and welded it into a cohesive, constructive, political 
organization, to the surprise and satisfaction of the leaders of 
his own party, and to the dismay and chagrin of the leaders of 
the opposition. 

Our last Democratic president, Grover Cleveland, was a 
great man, and made a great President, under many trying 
difficulties. My admiration for, and loyalty to, the memory 
of Mr. Cleveland are sufficient to protect me against the charge 
of unfriendliness when I say that he utterly failed to control 
the discordant factions in his party in Congress. He admitted 
this failure when he repeatedly expressd his misfortune in 
having "a Congress on his hands." President Wilson has suc- 
ceeded where Cleveland failed. No-one can say that Presi- 
dent Wilson has a "Congress on his hands"; but all agree that 

21 



Congress has a President in the lead or at its back — as occa- 
sion may indicate — used by him as the most appropriate means 
for securing the successful performance of party pledges. In- 
stead of President Wilson's waiting to see what Congress is 
going to do, he takes the lead, and by his counsel and active 
conferences with party leaders he smoothes out differences 
and accomplishes definite results. 

Some few men, in all ages, have demonstrated that they were 
born leaders of men. This rare gift is typically exemplified 
in the person of our present President. As proof of this 
assertion, he established in a few months' time a leadership in 
his party which has no parallel since the days of Andrew 
Jackson, and this he accomplished without the threats, the 
bluster, or the use of patronage which characterized the leader- 
ship of "Old Hickory." For the first time in a long period 
of years, the Democratic Party is moving steadily and aggres- 
sively, along affirmative and constructive lines, instead of be- 
ing merely a negative force — a party of opposition only. 

Some of you, no doubt, who have not had the opportunity 
to see Woodrow \\'ilson, are interested to know what manner 
of man he is, and what are some of his personal characteristics. 
Although I have seen him on several occasions, and under 
varied circumstances, I declare to you that it is difficult to de- 
scribe him. He possesses, in a very remarkable degree, a cer- 
tain combination of mental and personal attractions, which, in 
every age, gives to those who exhibit it a mysterious and 
almost unbounded ascendancy over all who come within the 
sphere of their influence. He is a scholar beyond comparison 
with any man in public life in this generation, and perhaps of 
any period in the history of this country. He possesses, in 
the language of Milton, 

"a complete and generous education, that which fits a 
man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously, all 
duties, both public and private, of peace or war." 

22 



He never shrinks from the discharge of any pubHc duty be- 
cause of difficulty, apparent or real ; but is always ready to take 
an unequivocal stand on public questions, and unflinchingly to 
abide the consequences of his decision before the people. His 
thoughts and perceptions are rapid, and his plans are often 
formed and executed while others are deliberating and 
doubtful of the course to pursue. He has ever shown, by 
precept and example, his quiet, deep-seated, unfaltering, and 
unreserved faith in human freedom, and has never wavered 
in his support of all the means and agencies which may con- 
tribute to the greater freedom of mankind. In short, he is 
as genuinely democratic as Thomas Jefiferson professed to be, 
and, in addition, possesses many of the other good traits of 
Jefferson ; but, at the same time, he is superior to Jefiferson 
in his moral and religious convictions. He is not only free 
from the sinister influence of self-seeking men, but his natural 
convictions upon this phase of our public life are such that 
he is constantly on the alert to detect such eft'orts, and quickly 
flees from the very appearance of this evil. As an evidence 
of this quality, permit me to repeat a statement made to me 
recently in New York by a man who has had long experience 
in observing public men. Aly informant stated that he dif- 
fered from the President very widely upon most, if not all, 
the public questions of the day ; but he frankly confessed that 
Mr. Wilson was the only President in his recollection who 
could not be influenced or controlled by somebody, and that 
he was thoroughly convinced of his honesty and sincerity in 
everything he undertook. 

The career of Woodrow Wilson is one of the most fascinat- 
ing and intensely interesting of any man who has held high 
public office in this or any other generation. His administra- 
tion of the affairs of government marks a new epoch in our 
national life. With him, honesty and purity in politics is a 
cardinal principle, and during his incumbency of the chief 
place at the head of the Nation, talent, virtue, and merit, 

23 



instead of political chicanery and intrigue, will be considered 
as passports to power. 

He is, in my opinion, the greatest leader in the army of 
civic endeavor who has occupied the chief station in our 
government during our national existence, and if we of the 
rank and file will but do our duty in aiding him to consum- 
mate the exalted and much-to-be-desired ideals which he has 
in mind for his country, 

"The blessings of the patriot will gild the pathway of 
his journey through life, and the tears of the patriot will 
descend upon his tomb forever." 



The author acknowledges his indebtedness to the Hon. Josephus 
Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, for much of the personal data used in 
this address. 

24 



\ 

V // / I I lllliimiiii III,. . 



^^^3 981 602 A 



